A month ago, we brought you 15 top life hacks (or in old language 'fun tips'), in a contest to see which would be most popular. Now we've a host of new ones to throw in there too. As we're measuring popularity by who clicks to the guide, we won't overburden you with the details here. Let the battle commence...

1.

Pssst. Wanna buy stolen goods on the cheap? Fancy a new bike or bit of bling? Don't worry, even the police are in on it. Everything is explained in Buy stolen goods.

'£67 of shopping for 11p'. Source, gain & hoard 100s of product and store coupons, then combine them for huge discounts on groceries and more. Purple Sarah says: "Got £67 of shopping for 11p after store offers, coupons & my employee discount (but it's totally doable just with coupons)." Few will reach such heights, but many can cut costs with our 20 extreme couponing tips.

4.

Turn your smartphone into a free sat-nav. If it's got GPS, convert it into a free sat-nav for the UK and 27 other countries. If you're going overseas, download maps before you go to avoid pricey data costs.

5.

Are you due the new marriage allowance? If you're married or in a civil partnership, it could be worth up to £212/yr to you. See Do you qualify? Ben tweeted after reading it: "Good news, I've had confirmation that my marriage allowance has come through from my wife's tax code."

6.

Free upgrade to Windows 10. Got Windows 7 or 8.1? Register now for the free upgrade. And if you're wondering what happened to the missing Windows 9? Rumours are 7, 8, 9 (say it out loud).

7.

Wear/wore a uniform for work? Are you due a tax rebate? If you wash it yourself you may be due a uniform tax rebate for up to four years. As Pete tweeted: "Just got almost £120 rebate for uniform cleaning from HMRC."

8.

Get savings interest tax-free NOW if you earn under £15,600. From April 2016, basic-rate taxpayers will be able to earn £1,000 of savings interest tax-free (higher rate £500). Yet for some on lower incomes, a new tax-free savings allowance already started this April. See Save tax-free 2015.

Now, those are the new ones - here are the winners from last time, showing how well read each was in the five days after we sent the last life hacks email...

9.

Watch TV and (legally) don't pay the licence fee. (119,000 reads in five days after the last life hacks email). For full info, see Do I qualify?

10.

Reverse Sky TV's price hikes. (103,000 reads). Prices went up by £54 in June, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to fork out more - our How to beat Sky price hikes story takes you through it. Karen tweeted: "Rang Sky after seeing the success from the advice on your site, just saved £160." And it's not just Sky - see How to beat the BT Sport price rise.

11.

Free £48/yr for Barclays customers. (91,000 reads). If you already have an account, there's an easy way to bag the cash. See Free £48 from Barclays.

Reclaim lost Tesco points. (63,000 reads). Check if you've lost or forgotten Clubcard points with our Reclaim Tesco Points guide. Diane checked and found some from August 2014. "Just been on Tesco site to check my vouchers - £72 outstanding. Many thanks, that's bliddy brill."

15.

A YEAR'S 2for1 cinema for £3 by manipulating Meerkat Movies.(60,000 reads). The Meerkat Movies trick shows how to get a year's 2for1 pass for a few quid. Darcy tweeted: "Loving Meerkat Movies, £26.70 saved over 3 weeks."

PS: Do you have a life hack to share? We’d love your suggestions for MoneySaving life hacks, too. Email us at news@moneysavingexpert.com. We’ll donate £50 to the charity of your choice for any new ones we use (for the first person who sends it).

Whether you want a mortgage or a contract mobile phone, credit ratings count. Last week, we gave you 15 credit boosting tips, explaining it's all about trying to predict future behaviour based on your past. So rejection's likely if your history makes you look a bad credit citizen. Yet equally, those who've never had credit get rejected due to a lack of data.

The solution is a credit (re)build card. Get a credit card and do around £50/mth of normal spending on it - never withdraw cash - then repay IN FULL each month (preferably by direct debit so you're never late) so there's no interest. After 6mths to a year, you'll look a better credit citizen. Of course, the catch-22 is, how do you get a card if you've a poor history? Specialist credit (re)build cards target this market...

New. Top (re)build credit cards. Most accept people with past CCJs/defaults and even old bankruptcies, but how old and how many varies. Our free credit rebuild Eligibility Calc shows your odds of acceptance for each. Unlike applying for a card, it doesn't leave a footprint lenders can see on your file, so you can home in on the right card and minimise applications. Here are the top new cardholder deals:

- New. Earn £40: Spend & fully repay monthly and Barclaycard Initial* will credit your account with £10 every 3mths. In fact, to get the £10 you just need to either spend or be repaying an old balance each month, making at least the min repayment - however, that will mean you pay interest, so we prefer you stick to repaying in full. - £20 Amazon voucher: Aqua Advance* (via this link) sends you a £20 Amazon vch after 3mths if you pay on time. - 0.5% cashback: Aqua Reward* gives 0.5% cashback on all spending, which can add up over a year.- 3mths 0% spending: The Capital One Classic* via this link offers a rare poor-credit 3mth 0%, yet be careful borrowing; we'd suggest only using it for respite from overdraft charges/payday loans. See how in Cap One help.

Over 550,000 British roofs gleam with the reflection of solar panels. With savings interest so low, many have used them as an alternative place to stash cash, but the maths keeps changing. More in free or cheap solar panels, but in a flash...

Is your roof south-facing? Photovoltaic solar panels generate electricity from the sun. For max efficiency, the roof you're putting them on should be predominantly south-facing, with little shade. For full tips, including whether you need planning permission and the impact on your home's value, see solar need-to-knows.

How you make money. There are two ways (savings figures from Energy Saving Trust):

(a) You can use the electricity they generate, thus reducing your electricity bills - typically £100+/year saved.
(b) You also get paid a 'feed-in tariff' for ALL the energy you generate (it works differently in NI) - even if you use it, in which case you get the double whammy of savings too - typically £500+/year.

The feed-in rate dropped today (Wed) from 13.3p/kWh to 12.9p/kWh and may drop again from 1 Oct (in contrast, you pay 9-13p/kWh for elec you use). Yet crucially, once panels are installed, your rate is fixed for 20 years and rises with inflation, so signing up sooner pays more. Of course the key is how the amount earnt measures against the cost of panels, and while the feed-in rate has dropped, panel prices have plummeted too. Full analysis in Does buying solar panels add up?

Holiday car hire done wrong can cost a fortune, yet done right it can be cheaper to have a car for a week than to get a taxi from the airport. Our full Cheap Car Hire guide has tricks & tips and can save you large, as in this tweet we got: "Thank you. Just booked car hire, £79 for week incl insurance. Nearly booked yesterday for £195." Here are 6 of the best...

Book ASAP. Prices usually rise weekly as you near your departure day. From £30 to £40 a day even for small cars isn't unheard of for walk-in midsummer (if they have any avail at all). Book right now & we've found Malaga for £7/day, Tenerife £9/day.

Speedily find the cheapest, then get it cheaper. Combine comparison sites Kayak* (easy to filter the car you want) and TravelSupermarket* (adds some Kayak misses).

Use special codes to try to cut costs further. Until Tue 7 Jul use the code QNN3A2PQ at huge broker HolidayAutos* (covers many hire firms) to get up to 11% off until 30 Sep. It can sometimes substantially undercut comparison sites.

Beware fuel policy charges that can add £90+. Hire for over 3 days in Europe and some charge for a full tank and say, "return it empty". If you won't drive too far, the unused fuel can cost more than the hire. If this'll hit you, TravelSupermarket* and AutoEurope* let you filter hires by fuel policy. More in fuel policy tips.

Slash excess insurance costs by 80%. Collect the car and you oft hear, "Hey, señor, you'll need excess insurance, too." They aim to get you to pay up to £25/day more by warning you'd shell out £100s if owt went wrong. Yet stand-alone excess policies can be £2/day. To find them: a) Do a Moneymaxim* comparison; b) Check Questor* with our 15% off code MSE2072; c) Check our 15% off Direct Car Excess Insurance*; d) If you get one of these policies, be prepared for hire firms to ask for a £500ish credit (not debit) card deposit. See Car hire insurance.

SUCCESS OF THE WEEK: (Send us yours on this or any topic)"We bought a car from Carcraft - it's now gone bust. The £2,000 warranty is now void, but we paid a £500 deposit on a debit card. Thanks to your claiming chargeback help we decided to give chargeback a try - and got the £500 back."

Poll results

Do you travel with or without travel insurance?
We believe travel insurance is a must for holiday travel abroad, and 83% of those who've booked a trip abroad already have it sorted. To that we enthusiastically say 'well done'. Unsurprisingly, just 9% of you planning a holiday in the UK have purchased travel insurance specifically for that trip.

- 71% of under-30s going abroad have travel insurance sorted.
- 84% of 30-64s have a policy.
- 74% of over-65s have one.
6,973 voted. See the full results.

Question of the week

Q: I need to balance transfer but owe a lot on one card. What's the max amount I can transfer? Anna, via Twitter.

MSE Helen's A: This all depends on your credit limit, and unfortunately you don't know this until you apply and are accepted for a card. The better your credit history, the bigger the limit you'll get. Yet don't let this put you off, even if you have £10,000 owed and get a limit of £1,000 - if the interest rate is cheaper, you are still saving money on the £1,000 you shift across. Plus, you could always apply for a second balance transfer card and move more onto that.

However, do be careful making too many applications in a short space of time, as that can hit your creditworthiness. Use the balance transfer Eligibility Calculator to see which card gives you the best chance of acceptance.

It's worth noting that whatever card you go for, it'll usually limit you to transferring 95% of your total credit limit - so if they offer you £5,000, you'd only be able to transfer £4,750.

That's it for this week, but before we go, you might have seen this game doing the rounds lately. Have a go and test your eyes. The results range from bat to hawk. Because we care, we've included links to free eye tests if you're the former.

We hope you save some money,

Martin & the MSE team

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How this site works

We think it's important you understand the strengths and limitations of the site. We're a journalistic website and aim to provide the best MoneySaving guides, tips, tools and techniques, but can't guarantee to be perfect, so do note you use the information at your own risk and we can't accept liability if things go wrong.

This info does not constitute financial advice, always do your own research on top to ensure it's right for your specific circumstances and remember we focus on rates not service.

Do note, while we always aim to give you accurate product info at the point of publication, unfortunately price and terms of products and deals can always be changed by the provider afterwards, so double check first.

We don't as a general policy investigate the solvency of companies mentioned (how likely they are to go bust), but there is a risk any company can struggle and it's rarely made public until it's too late (see the Section 75 guide for protection tips).

We often link to other websites, but we can't be responsible for their content.

Always remember anyone can post on the MSE forums, so it can be very different from our opinion.

MoneySavingExpert.com is part of the MoneySupermarket Group, but is entirely editorially independent. Its stance of putting consumers first is protected and enshrined in the legally-binding MSE Editorial Code.